Standing out in a crowded local market starts with knowing what you want customers to choose you for. For a tradesperson, that means making the work you want to attract—and your reasons for being a good choice for it—easy to recognise.
Consider a local decorator. He takes on a range of residential decorating work, but would particularly like more projects involving several rooms inside a home. Those jobs suit his business and give him the kind of work he enjoys: preparing surfaces properly and transforming several rooms as part of one project.
His task is to communicate that preference while keeping the door open to other suitable work.
What work would you like more of?
Think about the enquiry you would most like to receive. When someone rings for a quote, what is it you'd most want them to ask for?
For our decorator, it might be:
“We’d like the living room, hallway and bedrooms redecorated. Could you come round and quote?”
That gives him a useful starting point. He knows which service to give prominence in his advertising and what sort of project his supporting details should describe.
He is still happy to decorate an individual room. His advert therefore needs to show the range he accepts while giving multi-room interior work a clear place.
Another decorator in the same area might prefer smaller projects that fit around existing commitments. Both offer painting and decorating, but their adverts can reflect different priorities.
The same question applies to your business. Which work suits your skills, is commercially worthwhile and fits the way you want to work? Use those priorities to decide what your advert should emphasise.
What gives customers a reason to choose you?
Once you know what work you want, consider what makes your business a good choice for it.
“Quality workmanship” and “excellent service” tell the reader what you aim to provide. Specific details explain what that means in practice.
Our decorator wants to work in people’s homes, including homes that are occupied throughout the project. His approach centres on careful preparation, protecting furniture and leaving the working area tidy.
For someone having several rooms decorated while still living at home, those details explain how he will look after the property as well as carry out the decorating.
Compare these two descriptions:
The second explains his approach in terms relevant to that project—and gives him something to demonstrate elsewhere in his marketing.
Your own reason to be chosen might concern specialist experience, the scope of your service or the way you organise the work. Choose the details that are most accurate, relevant and useful to someone considering a quote.
How can you support what you say?
Your message should connect with what you can show.
For our decorator, photographs of completed rooms can illustrate the work he wants more of. Where useful, he could also show preparation in progress: protected furniture, covered flooring or surfaces being made ready for painting.
Customer reviews describing the care he takes in an occupied home would support the same message. A qualification or accreditation relevant to the work could also earn a place.
The choice matters. A photograph of a freshly painted front door might be a good example of his workmanship, but it does less to illustrate a multi-room interior project.
How do you turn those strengths into a clear advert?
Start with a service description that is easy to recognise, then use the details to show your focus.
Our decorator does not need an elaborate label for his preferred work. “Painting & Decorating” tells the reader what he does. The next lines can explain the kind of work he welcomes and his approach to it.
His advert could read:
The advert keeps his service recognisable, gives his preferred work prominence and explains how he approaches it.
An advert does not have to contain everything a business can say. It needs a clear message and an obvious next step. Further examples, photographs and service information can sit on the website or social page the customer visits afterwards.
If he chooses to advertise with The PhoneFile, he can use its free advert design service for advertisers. He already knows what he wants the design to emphasise: interior projects, careful preparation and protection of the home.
How should the same message appear elsewhere?
The decorator’s preferences can guide his other local marketing without forcing identical wording into every channel.
In an advert, he needs a compact service description and contact route. On social media, he has room to show a completed interior project or explain a detail of the preparation. In a local article or website section, he could address what a homeowner needs to consider before having several rooms redecorated.
Each format gives him a different amount of space, but the underlying business choice stays consistent.
That is worth checking when you review your own content. Does it describe the work you want to attract, or simply reflect whatever happened to be available to post?
Where should your business be seen locally?
Once your message is clear, choose where to put it in front of the local customers you want to reach.
Our decorator is willing to work across his service area, but would prefer more projects closer to home. That gives him another advertising decision: which part of that area should he concentrate on?
He can consider a PhoneFile edition covering the area where he wants more work, putting his interior-decorating message in front of households there. Each edition includes only one advertiser per business category, so another decorator would not be advertised in the same category alongside him.
The placement and the message should serve the same purpose: making his business visible locally and clearly describing the work he wants to be considered for.
Give people a clear reason to choose you
Our decorator gives homeowners a clear reason to consider him for interior projects: careful preparation, protection of their home and a high-quality finish.
For your own business, make the work you want more of easy to recognise, explain what you bring to it and support that message with relevant examples. Give customers something concrete to choose you for.
To advertise locally with The PhoneFile, get in touch to discuss the edition covering the area you want to reach and how to present your service.